DownSwinging.com

As you all know by now, Miguel Cabrera arrived home at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning drunk (he blew three times the legal limit, meaning it was at least a .24, so did the dude was pretty hammered) and got in a fight with his wife, where some type of blows were exchanged by both parties before the police were called.

I’m not really going to get into the domestic violence portion of this story, because we all know that’s a no-go, so just assume I’ve already bashed him for that.

But what the hell was Cabrera doing going out and getting wasted before one of the Tigers’ most important games of the season? I understand that ballplayers have lives, and after games sometimes they go out and have some beers. That’s fine. But 5 a.m.? On a day when your team is in a near must-win situation? Cabrera had to be picked up at 7:30 a.m. at the police station by the Tigers GM, and just 12 hours later began a game in which he went 0-4. Had the Tigers won that game, they wouldn’t be facing a one-game playoff tonight in Minnesota, with reduced playoff odds down to 43.2 percent, which is terrible considering that on Friday they were up around the 95 percent mark.

Obviously, the Cabrera can’t be blamed for everything, the Tigers really collapsed, and are a much better team than the Twins. But this type of behavior should not be tolerated. Now I know this sort of thing isn’t going to happen, but Cabrera should be suspended by the Tigers. If I was a Tigers fan, no way would I want him not playing tonight so I can’t blam eJim Leyland for not doing anything, but as an objective observer, this shouldn’t be going on. And while I know a game in April is worth the same as a game in September, he knew the stakes of his games on Saturday and Sunday, and has a responsibility as a contracted player to be at his best for those games especially. Frankly, he should want to win bad enough that he wouldn’t want to go out the night before.

Even though I want the Twins to win anyway as the underdog (even though it would mean I would miss out on another prediction), Cabrera has only confirmed this feeling. Hopefully, Cabrera gets booed at the Mall of America Field at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome.